Gone in a Flash

Cooper’s delightfully quirky 11th E.J. Pugh mystery (after 2012’s Dead Weight) finds E.J., a successful romance novelist and unlicensed PI in Black Cat Ridge, Tex., in the throes of an internal struggle between a rededication to her marriage and a passion for crime solving. Despite her best intentions, E.J. is soon involved in another case. After a routine trip to drop off her son at college in Austin, a mysterious satchel turns up in the pickup truck of E.J.’s husband. When two shadowy men begin staking out her house and kidnap her 16-year-old daughter, who now has the satchel, E.J. has no choice but to join the authorities in pursuit of these crooks. Meanwhile, E.J.’s pious yet sharp-tongued mother-in-law is forced to embark on a bit of detective work of her own when a member of her church’s congregation disappears from a Washington, D.C., hotel. Witty dialogue helps keep the pages turning. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. (Nov.)